Shortcut Cooking: One Pot Veggie Stir Fry

New Year’s Day has once again come and gone, and inside sources have assured me that with it came many repeated resolutions of eating healthier.

Wanting to eat healthier is a fantastic goal and we wholeheartedly support it. However, as with all goals, sometimes we are forced to prioritize other needs. Maybe work or school got a little too intense or maybe you had to be there for a loved one going through a tough time.

Ha.

These scenarios are inevitable and it’s understandable why sometimes they get the better of us and break our goals. We don’t think the solution here is “toughing it out” or “just stick to it, trust me” . Sometimes, external circumstances are enough to cause some internal changes.

That’s why Shortcut Cooking is so great. It’s what we do when things get hectic and we can’t spend as much to prepping and cooking.

The priority here is to spend as little time cooking and cleaning as possible while still eating good food. This means that any shortcut that we are allotted, we use. It means instead of fresh vegetables, we eat frozen vegetables and instead of mincing garlic, we use a garlic paste. The goal is to make a home cooked meal faster that ordering fast food, regardless of your cooking skill.

Today, we cooked One Pot Veggie Stir Fry. It was done in under 10 minutes.

Time to cook: 8 minutes (8 active minutes, 0 passive minutes)

Serves: 3 – 4 people.

Equipment:

We went with tofu, but if you’re a hardcore non-vegetarian, you can definitely use some beef strips or shredded chicken instead!

Frying pan (Or a wok if you have one. If you do, you’re better than us and you should feel proud.)

Items to clean: (5 Total, about 2 minutes)

1 pan

1 bowl

1 set of tongs

1 knife

1 cutting board

Ingredients:

Instant Rice Noodles

Package of Frozen vegetables
Frozen Vegetable package bought at our local grocery store for under $4

Taste: 3/5. This could compete against most run of the mill take out orders for veggie stir fry. The taste alone won’t rock your senses or change your world view, but at this price and speed, it’s very difficult to beat.

Easiness: 5/5. This recipe requires only the ability to use a stove. Its’ knife requirements are to cut tofu, something that can literally be done with a butterknife. In terms of skills, it cannot be much simpler.

Affordability: 5/5. Six dollars was enough to create about 4 servings.

Speed: 5/5: Easily done in under 10 minutes. Cleaning time can also be easily kept under 1 minute. It is very difficult to find home cooked meals that can be completed this quickly.

Nutrition: 3/5. It’s not the greatest. If you’re not careful with how much soy sauce you put in, this could be very rich in sodium. There is also a decent amount of oil, so it’s not ideal. However, the goal of this recipe was to be as fast and easy as possible. This recipe was able to accomplish that on the scale of a Big Mac at McDonalds, yet it was significantly healthier.

This costs $6, is enough to feed 4, and can be made in under 10 minutes.

Ways to Improve This Recipe:

Use fresh vegetables

Improves: Taste, Nutrition, Affordability

Penalizes: Speed, Easiness

The purpose of this recipe is to maximize speed and simplicity. However, if you are willing to spend 20 minutes cooking and cleaning instead of 10, the improvements in taste will be easily noticeable.

If you are not vegetarian/vegan, you can easily replace the tofu with some meats.